Incoming vice president for research selected as AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador

Friday, June 27, 2014

MANHATTAN — Karen Burg has been named one of seven new American Association for the Advancement of Science-Lemelson Invention Ambassadors. Burg will join Kansas State University on Aug. 3 as vice president for research and professor of chemical engineering.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, is the world's largest and most prestigious scientific society. Ambassadors chosen for the AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassadors Program are tasked with cultivating a new and diverse generation of inventors as well as increasing the global importance of research, discovery and invention education.

Burg will be recognized at an induction ceremony in Washington, D.C., in July.

"I am excited to represent Kansas State University as an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador and am looking forward to working with Kansas State researchers to grow the culture of innovation," Burg said.

Burg — one of the pioneers in breast tissue engineering — was selected as an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador for her research that centers on absorbable polymers, biofabrication and tissue engineering. Applications and developments from her research are featured in the Avon Foundation for Women and the National Institutes of Health-Center for Advancing Innovation's Breast Cancer Start-Up Challenge.

"We are thrilled to learn that a prominent figure at the university also will be playing a prominent role in advancing research, discovery and invention around the world," said Kirk Schulz, university president. "We congratulate Karen and look forward to her leadership as vice president for research as Kansas State University works to become a Top 50 public research university by 2025."

Burg is currently serving as interim vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at Clemson University.

In addition to her AAAS ambassadorship, Burg received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2002 and a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award in 2001.

She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a fellow of the American Council on Education. She is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Society For Biomaterials and other professional societies.

Burg earned her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University and her master's and doctorate in bioengineering from Clemson University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Karen Burg, who will join Kansas State University on Aug. 3 as vice president for research and a professor of chemical engineering, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science-Lemelson Invention Ambassador.